half way Croatia
I am now past the half-way point of my vacation in Croatia. So far it's been a well-rounded mix of all-things Croatian, starting with good old Croatian procrastination even before I left the US. It culminated with a night of packing, moving out of and cleaning my apartment, which all got done at 5:10 am, 5 minutes before I scheduled the taxi to take me to the airport.
Fortunatelly, the only thing I forgot to pack in all that rush was my Croatian ID, courtesy of which I now have the pleasure of experiencing another ultimate Croatian pleasure - its beaurocracy. "To pick up this form, you need your ID" - "I don't have my ID." - "Then you need a certificate of residence, which you can pick up at blah blah blah." ... "Hi, I need to pick up a certificate of residence." - "OK, to pick that up, you need your ID." - "I don't have my ID." - "I'm sorry, you need your ID." - "I left it abroad. Can I get a replacement ID?" - "No, you can't, because you know the location of your ID." - "So there is nothing I can do?" - "You could lie and tell me you lost it, but that would be a criminal offence, punishable by act blah blah section blah blah blah..." ... I recently realized that I am eligible to apply for US citizenship, which is becoming more and more appealing.
Some more pleasurable Croatian pass times have been going swimming (in the rain once, ahh that was nice) and spending hours at coffee bars. It also happens that my hometown and the surrounding region have become a cultural mecca with all sorts of events, concerts, festivals, etc. going on all the time. Right now there is a movie festival, and if you can get past the attitude of certain Croatian movie "stars", or at least find humor in it like I do, it is pretty enjoyable. Each day there are a bunch of movie projections, with the most important ones projected in the roman colloseum (under the light of the night sky, ah...), followed by an open-air concert. Two nights ago a Croatian singer from Peru came with an international band which included a Cuban mother-daughter pair (and each sounded like Celia Cruz). With some effort I managed to convince a couple of girls to dance with me; It was fun, but all I can say is that the next time I travel I am taking someone that can dance salsa with me.
The night before that there was a Croatian singer with a more French sort of international band, and his violin player was a transvestite. Damn cool. I also got to see John Zorn and his Acoustic Masada (really good jazz with a Jewish twist), Andrea Bocelli and some soprano woman (there is nothing like being awoken by the crescendo of these two while accidentally nodding off), the Whirling Dervishes of some place rather (they... whirl. a lot.) and I don't know there were other things too.
Actually, the coolest thing I saw was at an alternative theater festival right after I came - it was a fire-music act by this group called Free International Radicals Etc (FIRE). Browse http://www.pyromancer.de for an idea about what this was about. Kate Pendry's act "Sex in the warzone" was also really good - she's got a page (about a different act) on http://www.deaddiana.com.
One night we also drove up to a free Chemical Brothers concert in Trieste, Italy - I got to learn how to dance crazy with about a square foot of free space. It was actually a Garbage, Snoop Dog, & Chemical Brothers concert (some "Isle of MTV" thing), but we got there too late to see Garbage, and we watched Snoop Dog on the TV of the restaurant where we decided to eat something in after the hour and a half drive.
Speaking of which, I need to go eat something. This was more than enough writing anyway...
Fortunatelly, the only thing I forgot to pack in all that rush was my Croatian ID, courtesy of which I now have the pleasure of experiencing another ultimate Croatian pleasure - its beaurocracy. "To pick up this form, you need your ID" - "I don't have my ID." - "Then you need a certificate of residence, which you can pick up at blah blah blah." ... "Hi, I need to pick up a certificate of residence." - "OK, to pick that up, you need your ID." - "I don't have my ID." - "I'm sorry, you need your ID." - "I left it abroad. Can I get a replacement ID?" - "No, you can't, because you know the location of your ID." - "So there is nothing I can do?" - "You could lie and tell me you lost it, but that would be a criminal offence, punishable by act blah blah section blah blah blah..." ... I recently realized that I am eligible to apply for US citizenship, which is becoming more and more appealing.
Some more pleasurable Croatian pass times have been going swimming (in the rain once, ahh that was nice) and spending hours at coffee bars. It also happens that my hometown and the surrounding region have become a cultural mecca with all sorts of events, concerts, festivals, etc. going on all the time. Right now there is a movie festival, and if you can get past the attitude of certain Croatian movie "stars", or at least find humor in it like I do, it is pretty enjoyable. Each day there are a bunch of movie projections, with the most important ones projected in the roman colloseum (under the light of the night sky, ah...), followed by an open-air concert. Two nights ago a Croatian singer from Peru came with an international band which included a Cuban mother-daughter pair (and each sounded like Celia Cruz). With some effort I managed to convince a couple of girls to dance with me; It was fun, but all I can say is that the next time I travel I am taking someone that can dance salsa with me.
The night before that there was a Croatian singer with a more French sort of international band, and his violin player was a transvestite. Damn cool. I also got to see John Zorn and his Acoustic Masada (really good jazz with a Jewish twist), Andrea Bocelli and some soprano woman (there is nothing like being awoken by the crescendo of these two while accidentally nodding off), the Whirling Dervishes of some place rather (they... whirl. a lot.) and I don't know there were other things too.
Actually, the coolest thing I saw was at an alternative theater festival right after I came - it was a fire-music act by this group called Free International Radicals Etc (FIRE). Browse http://www.pyromancer.de for an idea about what this was about. Kate Pendry's act "Sex in the warzone" was also really good - she's got a page (about a different act) on http://www.deaddiana.com.
One night we also drove up to a free Chemical Brothers concert in Trieste, Italy - I got to learn how to dance crazy with about a square foot of free space. It was actually a Garbage, Snoop Dog, & Chemical Brothers concert (some "Isle of MTV" thing), but we got there too late to see Garbage, and we watched Snoop Dog on the TV of the restaurant where we decided to eat something in after the hour and a half drive.
Speaking of which, I need to go eat something. This was more than enough writing anyway...
posted by Stjepan at 4:51 AM
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